When Peer Pressure, Not a Conscience, Is Your Guide

ON the front page of Wednesday's USA Today, there was a photo of a man wearing a T-shirt with a traffic sign and a message for rat finks written in graffiti type: "Stop Snitching."

As the story detailed, this is the bold new wardrobe of drug dealers and gang members engaged in an anti-snitch campaign that is frustrating authorities.

Imagine a T-shirt as a tool of witness intimidation. Now imagine it as the undershirt of the male athlete in a locker-room culture devoted to its own code of silence, of a male athlete who thrives inside hostile arenas where the Vegas rule of "what goes on here, stays here" creates the tacit acceptance of denigrating behavior.

On a team, there are players reared on misplaced war-room jargon, conditioned to equate teammates with soldiers, locker rooms with foxholes and Patton with the coach. In an arena, fans are roped off from the norms of decent behavior, provided anonymity by the cover of a crowd, free to mock their foils without repercussions.

Want to challenge an opponent's manhood? Mock him by turning the serenade of "Brokeback Mountain" into a gay slur. Care to test the tolerance of an adversary who has been arrested? Taunt him with the rattle of handcuffs. Go ahead and break any social code necessary for the sake of the team.

At the intersection of entitlement and enablement, there is Duke University, virtuous on the outside, debauched on the inside. This is the home of Coach K's white-glove morality and the Cameron Crazies' celebrated vulgarity.

The season is over, but the paradox lives on in Duke's lacrosse team, a group of privileged players of fine pedigree entangled in a night that threatens to belie their social standing as human beings.

Something happened March 13, when a woman, hired to dance at a private party, alleged that three lacrosse players sexually assaulted her in a bathroom for 30 minutes. According to reported court documents, she was raped, robbed, strangled and was the victim of a hate crime. She was also reportedly treated at a hospital for vaginal and anal injuries consistent with sexual assault and rape.

Players have been forced to give up their DNA, but to the dismay of investigators, none have come forward to reveal an eyewitness account.

Maybe the team captains are right. Maybe the allegations are baseless.

But why is it so hard to gather the facts? Why is any whisper of a detail akin to snitching?

"The idea of breaking ranks within a team is identified as weak," said Katie Gentile, an assistant professor and the director of the Women's Center at John Jay College, adding, "The bottom line is, your self-esteem is more valuable to you than someone else's life."

There is research Gentile cites to back up the analysis. What do women fear the most? Rape and murder. What do men fear most? Ridicule.

At Long Island's Mepham High School, older members of the football team were accused of sodomizing junior varsity players with broomsticks, golf balls and pine cones at a camp in 2003. It took nearly a month and 12 subpoenas to prompt the team's cooperation with authorities.

On a lake in Minnesota last fall, a group of Vikings were accused of treating their boat cruise hostesses as grab bags. With teammates employing a "loose lips sink ships" strategy when questioned on the incident, the most salacious disclosure from the case thus far has been a legal debate over what constitutes a lap dance.

There are more cases all the time, often depicting a group of players against one woman. Some involve male players sexually molesting a handful of rookies in hazing rituals. Is it heterocentrism, homophobia or homoeroticism?

Whatever the root, there is a common thread: a desire for teammates to exploit the vulnerable without heeding a conscience.

At Duke, a day after the team provided DNA samples to the police, players went back to practice as normal. "All our focus is on trying to beat the Hoyas now," the lacrosse coach, Mike Pressler, said.

Public outrage had more traction than Pressler's warped priorities. For now, the season has been suspended while the investigation continues. For days, Durham residents and Duke students have rallied on behalf of sexual-assault victims, banging pots and pans, hoping to stir more action out of Duke's president, Richard H. Brodhead.

The indignation has been heartening, but it may also be hypocritical.

How many of the offended are among the offensive? Have any of them cheered when the Cameron Crazies -- who have been known to deride an opponent accused of a sex crime with a sign that read, "Did you send her flowers?" -- cross the boundaries of decency?

Has President Brodhead reveled in the Crazies' witty ability to belittle villains in an environment that only serves to nurture the entitlement of his own athletes?

Does President Brodhead dare to confront the culture behind the lacrosse team's code of silence or would he fear being ridiculed as a snitch?

Correction: April 6, 2006, Thursday The Sports of The Times column on Friday, about the investigation involving a woman who said she had been raped by three players on the Duke University lacrosse team misstated the nature of the players' cooperation with the authorities. The police in Durham, N.C., said that although most team members had not voluntarily submitted to police interviews and DNA tests, the three residents of the house where the accuser said the incident occurred had done so.

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A version of this article appears in print on March 31, 2006, on Page D00001 of the National edition with the headline: Sports of The Times; When Peer Pressure, Not a Conscience, Is Your Guide. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe